2018–2019 Annual Report Bates-Morse Mountain Conservation Area

Photo credit: Johnathan Milne / LightHawk

Annual Report, 2018-2019 Prepared by Laura Sewall, Director May 2019

2018–2019 Annual Report

Dance Instructor Julie Fox with students from Creating Educational Experiences at Morse Mountain.

Contents

2 Letter from the Director

5 Education and Research 8 Conservation and Wildlife 10 News, Events, and Noteworthy 11 The Gate Keeper’s Log 12 Director’s Professional Activity 13 Looking Forward 14 Appendices n Appendix A: Updated Visitor data n Appendix B: The Town of Phippsburg Report

1 PB 2018–2019 Annual Report Letter from the Director

Photo credit: Peg Daly

On a recent walk in the BMM woods, just upland from the mouth of the Morse River, I discovered a great growth of Usnea. I knew the lichen was there, but not that it had become so abundant. The trees were so fully covered that I could not tell if they were spruces or firs. I feared a terrible imbalance and the loss of trees but a little research revealed that Usnea grows in moist conditions, but more notably, it

2 PB 2018–2019 Annual Report grows abundantly when the air quality is especially With retirement in July, I have taken the good. Also notable is that it is antimicrobial, opportunity to reflect on 11 years of experience. antibacterial and antifungal and is known for a long While reviewing previous annual reports, I easily see list of medicinal uses. In part, Usnea is known to how the focus of this position has shifted over time. heal wounds and sore throats, relieve allergy It was initially a matter of addressing needs. In 2009, symptoms and respiratory issues, and fight a wide my concerns included getting a management plan range of infections. We hardly know the riches in place, dealing with purple loosestrife—a around us. formidable invasive plant—in the marsh, cleaning up a large pile of lobster traps left in the Seagontz This, I think, is true when it comes to salt marshes. parking area, and getting a new gatehouse built. Few of us know that the current value attributed to the suite of salt marsh ecosystem services—or By the spring of 2010, the purple loosestrife had natural benefits to humans—is estimated to be been treated and was dying back with a promising $194,000 per hectare per year. The Sprague Marsh is rebound of diverse native plants; the management 74 acres, or 30 hectares, translating into an plan was nearly completed; Jim Joseph had built a estimated value of $5.8 million per year. This is new gatehouse; and the Sarah H. Trafton Fund had worth contemplating in the midst of on-going salt been initiated to support faculty and student marsh loss. research at BMMCA. It felt like I was getting a house in order. A September 2018 paper published in Nature emphasizes the uncertain response of coastal Next came a focus on issues that threatened the wetlands to sea level rise. Global projections natural integrity of the ecological systems at Morse estimate a 20% to 90% net loss of salt marshes, Mountain. In 2010, the state’s Bureau of Parks and resulting in the loss of highly valued ecosystem Lands hoped to bulldoze the Morse River spit in services, including large amounts of carbon order to change the course of the river—which had sequestration and storage. Other lost benefits swung towards the upland and threatened to erode include storm surge protection, fisheries support, the new bathroom facilities and parking lot. A and water quality improvement. number of stakeholders became partners in environmental protection and, with the help of Geologist Bev Johnson has monitored the accretion Peter Vickery (an eloquent voice for wildlife) and of sediment on the Sprague Marsh since 2013 in Bates professor, Mike Retelle (a geologist familiar order to determine its longevity in the face of sea with the history of sediment transport along level rise. Early results suggest a future with open Seawall Beach), we successfully argued against water near the mouth of the Sprague River and a mechanical interference, thus preserving the natural more persistent salt marsh toward the upland, at the system—and a large-scale natural laboratory. farther reaches of high tides. Based on my observations of the Sprague marsh, this is not In 2011, the Army Corps of Engineers was surprising--but it is critical to confirm. It also points determined to dredge the lower Kennebec River to the educational value of BMMCA: It’s a during the early summer season, when endangered remarkably undisturbed sentinel site for observing and native fish migrate upriver and are most present rapid coastal change. in the estuary. A group of local environmental leaders lost the case, in Federal Circuit Court, but

3 PB 2018–2019 Annual Report gained insight and a valuable sense of camaraderie. I funds. Still, one hope for the future direction of was blessed to participate in defense of a regional- BMMCA, is that Bates maintains a role in the scale natural system, of which BMMCA is a major Northeastern Coastal Stations Alliance. There is part. clear promise in the collaboration.

That growing sense of regionalism became more With my retirement, I have three fundamental hopes apparent as news of radical warming in the Gulf of for the future of the relationship between Bates Maine captured the attention of coastal scientists, College and Morse Mountain: 1) that management managers, and fishermen. By that time collaboration, limits people—in the sense that wildlife has every with the intent of tracking system-wide changes in opportunity to emerge, adapt and thrive without the Gulf, seemed like the best way to uplift the interference; 2) that the natural systems at BMMCA visibility of BMMCA as a natural lab. That simple serve to inform our collective understanding of a realization fostered the emergence of NeCSA, the rapidly changing Gulf of Maine; and 3) that many Northeastern Coastal Stations Alliance, in 2015. students find themselves learning and thriving here.

A National Science Foundation grant and the If we—that is, those of us who care about the future conception of regional tracking easily appealed to a of BMMCA—continue with those fundamental dozen field stations and marine labs around the Gulf intentions, I am easily grateful all over again. During of Maine. Early meetings confirmed the importance my tenure as director, I’ve been consistently grateful of gaining a large-scale perspective on change and for my team: Jim Joseph and Don Bruce have been we set to work to coordinate monitoring, including fabulous teammates, with Frank Wezner coming water temperatures and biotic conditions in the along more recently. I am also thankful for the many intertidal zone. I counted BMMCA/Shortridge as forms of support from the St John family, The one of the small field stations. Nature Conservancy, the BMMCA Corporation board, the Town of Phippsburg, the Small Point Over the last three years, relationships and data Association—and of course, Bates College. I management plans have been made, shared sincerely thank all of you for our shared protocols hammered out, and data collected. commitment to Bates-Morse Mountain. NeCSA’s progress has been hampered, however, by the need for staff time to organize data and Laura meetings, to maintain visibility, and to apply for

4 PB 2018–2019 Annual Report Education and Research

Education A chance encounter with ten 7th grade students and Additional visiting schools: North Yarmouth Academy, their instructor, in early April, revealed that Breakwater Chewonki Semester, Great Salt Bay Middle School, School, from Portland, visits BMMCA regularly. Hyde School, Maine Central School, Morse and According to the instructor, they visit at least once or Lewiston High Schools, Maine Coast Waldorf School, twice each year—or whenever it becomes apparent that Breakwater School, Oak Hills High School, Hebron a field trip would significantly add to the curriculum. Academy, Earth School, Kimberton Waldorf School, On this particular day, they were visiting Morse Friends of Portland School, Thornton Academy, and Mountain and Seawall Beach to learn about natural Woolwich Middle School. systems.

Similarly, several of the schools reported below appeared at BMMCA in the off-season and are consequently recorded because of encounters in the parking lot or on the trail. Few schools notify the director in advance of a field trip and, as a result, the reported numbers greatly underestimate the full educational use of BMMCA.

Shadows of Bates students from GEOs20: Lost Beaches of Maine. Photo credit: Alice Doughty

Colleges: 4 Overall visits: 20 ■ Bates: 10 courses, student and alumni groups recorded

Phippsburg Kindergarten students with Batesies. Photo credit: Bill Short-term course work: 3 courses; at least 7 visits Wallace ■ Bates College Courses: Primary, Middle and High Schools: 17 BIO s30: Ecology and Natural History of the Maine Coast Visits: 23 BIGE 113: Marine Science Students: 623 GEO s20: Lost Beaches of Maine Phippsburg Elementary School: 86 students visited in BIO s31: Avian Biology September. BIES 246: Conservation Biology BIO 128: Out of the Sea In May, Bates students from Creating Educational EDUC s20: Creating Educational Experiences at BMMCA Experiences at Bates-Morse Mountain led 3 field trips for Phippsburg Elementary School students, including ■ Shortridge retreats: 31, from September 9th to May 30th kindergartners. The trips were structured around a Number students, faculty and staff served: 545 variety of natural history and art activities. Shortridge 2018 summer residents: 11 (7 from Bates)

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■ Bowdoin: 10 visits ■ Colby: 1, 10 students for Orientation Bill Wallace, education instructor for Creating ■ Maine College of Art: 1 visit, 9 students Educational Experiences at Morse Mountain, and 16 students prepared field trips and lesson plans for ■ Bates Community Engaged Learning: Visiting students from Lewiston and Phippsburg Elementary assistant biology professor, Katie Dobkowski, and schools, returning to BMMCA every Tuesday during students from Marine Science created short videos to the college’s 5-week short-term. In part, the intent was teach marine ecology to 3rd, 4th, 5th grade students at to create young “field biologists for a day.” the Phippsburg Elementary School (PES) in March. Following these in-class introductions to marine Research and Monitoring animals and concepts, Dobkowski and students in Ecology and Natural History of the Maine Coast led a field ■ Sediment Elevation Tables (SETs): Annual trip for PES students to Popham Beach in May. (The monitoring completed in August by Geology professor, trip was intended for BMMCA but plans were altered Bev Johnson and lab technician, Phil Dostie. Data held due to time constraints.) by Bev Johnson.

■ Seawall Beach profiles: Completed in June, July and August by Vanessa Paolella ‘21 and Nicole Kumbula ‘21, under the supervision of geology professor, Mike Retelle. Recent analysis by Retelle indicates that the frontal dune, approximately 100 meters east of the Morse Mountain trail, has receded 18 meters since 1990. On the western side of the beach, the dune front has receded toward the upland by approximately 8 meters since 1991.

Photo credit: Bill Wallace

Excerpt from syllabus Creating Educational Experiences at Morse Mountain:

“In this course, we will work together to build project based field trips. The planning will ad- dress curriculum, instruction, assessment, and logistics of running a field trip. We will then bring students from Lewiston area schools to natural areas at Bates College, and Phippsburg Elementary School students to Bates Morse Mountain Conservation Area on the coast of Maine to take part in a day of field studies.

Principles of field ecology will be the core of what we do. The forests, vernal pools, salt marsh, rivers, beach and dunes of the Morse Mountain Conservation Area as well as the natural areas of our Bates College campus offer memorable learning opportunities. During their time at Morse Mountain or on the Bates College campus, our visiting students will be field biologists for the day, and will conduct authentic studies of the natural world that we prepare for them.”

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■ Salt marsh intertidal surveys: Annual plant biologist from Suffolk University and the Maine community surveys were conducted on the Sprague Department of Marine Resources. Protocols for Marsh by Laura Sewall and Vanessa Paolella ’21 in late conducting intertidal surveys were finalized by Hannah August. Surveys were begun in 2015. (Data are located in Webber, Bob Steneck (University of Maine) and Dave the BMMCA Research/Salt Marsh file.) Carlon (Bowdoin). A data management plan (DMP) was developed by students Nicole Kumbula ‘21, Trisha Kibugi, 21, Catherine Crossen ’20 and director, Laura Sewall. (To date, the DMP has not been agreed upon by NeCSA participants. Dave Carlon chairs the NeCSA Data Committee.)

■ Rocky Intertidal Monitoring: Katie Dobkowski, visiting assistant professor of marine biology, established 4-5 rocky intertidal survey sites in close vicinity to BMMCA in May. The sites will be monitored for changes to the intertidal biotic community with the intention of contributing to the NeCSA database on coastal change. Students will conduct annual monitoring in conjunction with Dobkowski’s field courses.

■ Southern Pine Beetle monitoring: In partnership with The Nature Conservancy and the Maine Forest Service, BMMCA staff (Don Bruce and Laura Sewall) began monitoring for the southern pine beetle (SPB) in May. The beetle is highly destructive to pines in the southern US, and has been moving northward with warming Vanessa Paolella ’21 on Seawall Beach dune front. Photo credit: L.Sewall temperatures. It has not yet been found in mid-coast Maine, but monitoring has begun at several coastal sites. ■ Drone imagery of Sprague Marsh: Several high- Beetle traps, placed near pitch pines at BMMCA, will be resolution drone images of the southern and western monitored for 6 weeks. portions of the Sprague Marsh were made in late April, in order to record current geophysical patterns. For ■ BMMCA Research on-line: The website listing of future reference, images can be viewed at PIX4D, or by studies conducted at BMMCA now includes abstracts contacting Michelle Holbrook-Pronovost, Bates College for all studies with author generated abstracts. The Technology Consultant, for access to Google drive files. complete list represents 41 years of research at BMMCA Previous drone imagery, recorded in 2017, is also located and can be found at: https://www.bates.edu/bates-morse- in Google drive files, held by the BMMCA director. mountain-shortridge/list-of-research-publications/

■ NeCSA (Northeastern Coastal Stations Alliance) update: In 2018, Isobel Curtis ‘17 also created a mapped, Temperature data sets were collected from three sites at interactive record of BMMCA research to date. Mapped BMMCA in early November, in coordination with locations include project titles, dates and discipline. NeCSA stations. Data were archived by Hannah Webber Only studies with completed abstracts are included on (Schoodic Institute), along with other NeCSA data. the map, representing just over 50% of the total studies Protocols for characterizing all intertidal survey sites completed. The map can be found at: https://arcg. were completed by Laura Sewall and Tom Trott, marine is/1aWab0

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Photo credit: Bill Wallace Conservation and Wildlife Migratory Shorebirds on Seawall Beach Nearly all of those feeding at Seawall Beach are listed as either “highly imperiled” or “of high concern.” Listed as Seawall Beach supports one of the largest federally threatened and state endangered, the Piping concentrations of migrating shorebirds in Maine. Plover is Seawall beach’s most high profile rare bird. Historically, tens of thousands of birds have used the Least Terns are also endangered, and have not nested on beach during each fall migration (mid-July through Seawall Beach since 2005. Habitat degradation and early September). human disturbance are primary factors impacting shorebirds, but long migrations mean that birds Shorebird populations are now in sharp decline encounter numerous anthropogenic threats. More worldwide. In North America, an aggregate of 19 recently climate change has been cited as the primary species of long-distance shorebird migrants—including threat to the survival of shorebirds. Within this context, those landing on Seawall Beach—show a decline of it is notable that the Piping Plovers, with protective 51% since 1975. efforts and intensive monitoring by Maine Audubon, are showing improvements in population numbers.

“The global collapse of migratory shorebird populations is much more than a calamity facing a group of exquisitely evolved birds. It also tells us that our global network of aquatic systems is fraying. If water is the world’s lifeblood and aquatic systems are it’s connective tissue, then the decline of the planet’s most spectacular global travelers signals a systemic illness that demands our attention and action.” --John W. Fitzpatrick, director of the Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology and Nathan R. Senner, University of Montana

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■ Piping Plovers: infestation. In 2018, in response to their findings, and Statewide: In 2018, 128 piping plover chicks fledged based on recommendations from the Maine Natural from Maine beaches. This was the largest number of Areas Program, one hemlock was taken down. The tree fledglings since monitoring began in 1981. The number was dying quickly and leaning over the road and of nesting pairs increased 6% from the previous year, electric wires. Most of the fallen tree was left on site but from 64 to 68 pairs. The average reproductive rate was the large, straight base was milled for the construction 1.88 chicks per pair, with a chick survivorship of 66%. of raised beds at Phippsburg’s new Community Of the 97 nesting attempts, 26 were lost to high tides, Garden. A public education sign will soon document 15 to predation and 6 were abandoned prior to hatch. the site and claim the damage to be a climate change Also notable is that the population seems to be impact. stabilizing: over the last four years, there have been at least 60 pairs of nesting plovers in Maine. ■ Saltmarsh Nesting Birds: Since 2013, Bates has hosted researchers from SHARP Seawall Beach: Seven pairs of plovers nested on (Saltmarsh Habitat and Avian Research Program) by Seawall Beach in 2018, producing 12 fledged chicks. providing summer housing at the Shortridge Coastal The reproductive rate was less than the previous year: in Center. In 2018, two field researchers spent a total of 4 2017, seven pairs produced 16 fledglings. Predation by weeks based in Phippsburg in order to conduct annual crows, great-backed gulls and foxes significantly surveys at Popham and other regional study sites. Two impacted the 2018 number of fledglings. interns will continue area surveys in summer, 2019. Monitored species show significant declines, including Popham Beach: Six pairs made eleven nesting 10.6% annual reductions in the population size of Salt attempts. Five nests hatched, but no chicks survived to marsh sparrows since 1998. fledge. All nests were predated. ■ Coyotes and Foxes: ■ Hemlock Management: A new study, to be conducted by Henry Masters from In 2016, students working with Biology professor, Brett the University of Southern Maine, will attempt to Huggett documented an infestation of Hemlock document interactions between coyotes, red foxes and Woolly Adelgid (HWA) at BMMCA. In 2017, gray foxes. BMMCA will serve as one study site during Conservation Biology students (BIES 246) developed a the 2019 summer season, with nearly a dozen wildlife draft Hemlock Management Plan with the prospect of cameras deployed in high wildlife use areas. significant die-off due to the Hemlock Woolly Adelgid

Professor Bev Johnson demonstrating sediment core sampling for visitors. Photo credit: L.Sewall

9 PB 2018–2019 Annual Report News, Events and Noteworthy

■ Olin Art Exhibit: The Bates College Museum show, ■ Management Plan updated: Updates include a revised entitled Anthropcenic: Art about the Natural World in the Publicity Policy and previously agreed-upon changes to Human Era, featured BMMCA. Seventeen artists were rules impacting the St John family and their guests and represented, including Julie Poitras Santos. “Chronicle renters. of Mud,” created by Poitras Santos, included video footage largely taken at BMMCA. The piece ■ Annual Reunion Walk: Participation in the 2018 emphasized parallels between sedimentary processes, Alumni Reunion reached an all time high, with 60 human memory, and Bev Johnson’s research on the participants. The walk was co-led by Judy Marden and Sprague Marsh. Laura Sewall.

■ Outreach: Mike Retelle presented beach-profiling ■ Annual Beach Cleanup: The day (April 13th) began results from Seawall Beach to the Small Point with rain but cleared by noon. Twenty plus volunteers community in July, 2018. His lecture noted persisted throughout. Jeff Sturgis doubled our ability to significant upland retreat of the frontal dunes and move traps with his truck. The resulting pile of traps included reference to larger changes observed in suggests that close to 100 traps were collected in 2019. Svallbard, Norway.

■ Research online: Abstracts added to the on-line list of ■ Signage: New welcome sign at BMMCA, with a map of BMMCA research projects. the area. The map is intended to reduce the need for The college’s record of research now covers 41 years. thousands of paper brochures each year. New public education sign on Hemlock Wooly Adelgid to be ■ Summer Fellowship: Funding for Bev Johnson’s posted. geology research with students during summer 2019, at BMMCA and other regional salt marshes, will be ■ Trail counters: Hayden Bavis, from Lewiston, earned partially provided by “Voluntary Use fees” collected at his Eagle Scout badge by researching and installing a BMMCA parking lot. trail counter in February. His Scout Master, fellow scouts, and fellow swim team members assisted. The ■ Pulitzer prize finalist: Rising: Dispatches from the new crew also removed close to 30 lobster traps from American shoreline, by Elizabeth Rush. The book was Seawall Beach. nominated in the General Nonfiction category and features Bev Johnson, Laura Sewall, and the Sprague Marsh.

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The Gatekeeper’s Log February 1st – November 5th, 2018

“Last week my family and I spent a spectacular day at Seawall Beach. Not sure how it took me so long to discover it, as a life-long Maine resident, but this was our first visit and I was stunned by the beauty and solitude there, and with your organization’s kindness in sharing the conservation area with us. Thank you so much for all that you folks do, and for your gracious hospitality.”

–Sarah Timm, from Norway, Maine

Hayden Bavis and scout troop installing trail counter. Photo credit: L.Sewall

■ Visitors: 20,657 (22,507 in 2017) ■ Clubs and Groups: 10; Visitors: 166 Gate-keeping days: 166 Including the Bath and Kennebunkport recreation One day in February: 109 visitors departments, Harvard Business School reunion, Apogee Average per day of gatekeeping: 124 (130 in 2017) Adventures, the Falmouth Outdoor Adventure Club, Number of first-timers: 3,055 (85% are repeat visitors) Small Point runners, America Foreign Service Group, Lot full: 48 (compared to 67 times in 2016). the Highlands Outdoor Club, the Merrymeeting Bird Worth noting: Lot full on March 31st Club, and the Northern Hemisphere Birding Club.

■ Camps: 11; Total visits: 15; Recorded Campers: 206 ■ Conservation organizations: Including Bath Boy Scouts, Bath Recreation At least 28 visits, including Maine Audubon, The Department Summer Camp, Kennebec Estuary Land Nature Conservancy, and the Maine Department of Trust Day Camp, Chewonki, and Camps Kohut, Wavus, Inland Fisheries and Wildlife. Fernwood, Kiev, Nashoba.

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• “Salt marshes, blue carbon and climate regulation.” Sierra Club Conference on Climate, May 2019.

Additional Activities at Bates College: • Taught Environmental Protection: A Crash Course, a first year seminar. • Organized and sponsored a facilitated session for the development of the Institute for Climate Adaptation and Resilience (ICAR). • Moderated panel for art exhibit at the Bates Museum: “Anthropocenic: Art about the Natural World in the Human Era.”

Community Service: • Currently serving on the Steering Committee for a national conference on natural history and human health; sponsored by the Natural History Institute • Membership on NeCSA’s steering committee • Editorial review of manuscripts submitted to Ecopsychology Journal • Editorial review for the Journal of Natural History Education and Experience • Editorial review of book manuscript for Springer Publications

Don Bruce and Nancy Sferra setting Southern Pine Beetle Trap. Photo credit: L.Sewall

Director’s Professional Activities

Publications: • Sewall, L. and Fleischner, T. (2019, in press). “Why Ecopsychology needs Natural History.” Ecopsychology Journal. Retrieved from: https://home.liebertpub.com/ publications/ecopsychology/300

• Manuscript submission: Vanishing Point: Facing Climate Change on the Coast of Maine (working title). Submitted as co-editor, with Don Dearborn, to Cornell University Press. Authored the Introduction and first chapter. Worked with acquisitions editor to edit manuscript.

Presentations: • “How outdoor and longitudinal ways of seeing change our view—and everything else.” Organization of Catherine Crossin ’20 conducting intertidal surveys at Schoodic Institute Biological Field Stations annual meeting, October 2018. with students from inner city Los Angeles. Photo credit: L.Sewall

12 PB 2018–2019 Annual Report Looking Forward Bates-Morse Mountain Conservation Area

Catherine Crossin ’20, Laura Sewall, Trisha Kibugi ’21 and Nicole Kumbula ’21 at the Shortridge Coastal Center.

BMMCA is poised for realizing an integrated program of change in natural and coastal systems. With the high coastal monitoring—and for contributing to a wider visibility afforded by large numbers of returning visitors, body of growing knowledge focused on coastal change. In longitudinal observations at Morse Mountain could also addition to measures of sediment accretion; intertidal further the broader public’s recognition of climate surveys of salt marsh vegetation and rocky shoreline change impacts and, by extension, encourage mitigation biota; water temperature records; and documentation of and human adaptation. There are many avenues for sediment transport and forest alterations, basic studies in adaptation and many motivated, capable and creative phenology and migrant shorebird and song bird counts students to assist. could substantially serve our understanding of climate

13 PB 2018–2019 Annual Report Appendices

Public visitation Visits 2008–2018 Gatekeeping Days, 2008–2018

5,000 35

30 4,000

25

3,000 20

15 2,000

10

1,000 5

Mar April May June July Aug Sept Oct Nov Mar April May June July Aug Sept Oct Nov

Per Day Average 2008–2018 Annual Totals Per Day 200 Year Visits Days Average 2008 13,671 189 72

2009 13,589 206 66

150 2010 16,182 168 96

2011 16,361 174 94

2012 17,286 190 91 100 2013 18,802 181 104

2014 19,147 171 112

50 2015 21,390 182 118 2016 22,691 187 122

2017 22,507 173 130

Mar April May June July Aug Sept Oct Nov 2018 20,657 166 124

2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 2018

14 PB 2018–2019 Annual Report Town of Phippsburg Annual Report Bates-Morse Mountain Conservation Area, 2018-19

The number of visitors to the Bates-Morse various theories about why that is, including Mountain Conservation Area (BMMCA) the relentless mosquito season; the rainy, declined slightly from 2017 to 2018. During uninviting weather early in the season; the the 2018 gate-keeping season, 20,691 people heat and humidity late in the season; the new walked the nearly two miles to Seawall Beach. turn-around facilitating less packed conditions In 2017, that number was 22,507, an average in the parking lot; and/or the new bold-faced of 130 a day. In 2018, the average number of type on the BMMCA website, advising potential visitors per day was 124. on a clear summer day. Those of us who work at BMMCA have visitors that the parking lot may fill by 10 AM

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Despite these obstacles and possibilities, likely outcomes under warming conditions. The people return again and again to Morse HWA had been moving north for over a decade Mountain. In 2018, 85% of all visitors had and it had clearly reached the Phippsburg been there before—and this is especially peninsula. Trees infested with HWA are likely apparent with school groups. Year after year, to die over the course of 5-10 years. Treatment the same primary, middle and high schools is expensive and hazardous to waterways. bring students from the mid-coast region—an area that stretches between Damariscotta, The dying hemlocks will be left to fall as they Lewiston, and Portland. In 2018, 20 visits will, presenting “a mess” in the forest—and from 14 area schools brought 577 students also an indicator, and reminder, of a warming to BMMCA during the gate-keeping season. climate. However, because one large and Similarly, 4 colleges reliably bring students to quickly dying hemlock presented a safety hazard, it was taken down this year. Lumber orientation and sports practice. These are from the removed hemlock will be used MaineMorse CollegeMountain of Art,for field Colby, studies, Bowdoin freshman and Bates to make raised beds for Phippsburg’s new colleges. community garden.

The conservation area and Seawall Beach In 2018, the annual beach clean-up occurred on become known to students over years and April 4th. Twenty–plus volunteers worked most remain a popular destination for many. It of the day to remove close to a hundred lobster is a place where students have picnics and traps from the beach. Thanks to Curtis Doughty, learn about salamanders and migratory birds, the unusable traps were compressed and put quahogs and green crabs. They learn about directly into a dumpster, along with two years ecological systems and rapidly emerging of piled up traps that had been waiting for environmental change. Recreational visitors proper disposal. see a remarkably diverse and untrammeled expanse of land and sea, and perhaps notice When I asked Don Bruce, the lead gatekeeper, how environmental conditions are changing. if he had any comments for this report, he immediately expressed appreciation for Two apparent changes are worth noting. The the Town’s police force—and especially for their timely assistance when any sort of emergency or enforcement issues occur. The tides,first is leaving that the a causewaywrack line across of salt the marsh Sprague hay support provided by Chief Skroski and his strewnMarsh floods across more the road. frequently Second, with an infestationhigher crew is much appreciated by all of us at Morse of Hemlock Wooly Adelgid (HWA) has impacted Mountain—and it’s a welcome reminder that a stand of Eastern hemlocks just uphill there are many of us working to protect the from the eastern side of the Sprague Marsh, special experiences offered by Bates-Morse especially on the south side of the road. Mountain—and Phippsburg. Thank you, all!

Respectfully submitted, and mapped at Morse Mountain, and was Laura Sewall relativelyBy 2017, the understood insect pest in hadterms been of biology identified and

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Bates-Morse Mountain Conservation Area 163 Wood Street Lewiston, Maine 04240 Phone: 207-786-6078